Yardley Players present 'Peter Pan' at Kelsey Theatre

Cast members in the Yardley Players' production of J.M. Barrie's "Peter Pan" take flight on pixie dust. From left are Patricia Curley as Wendy, Kimmy Graham as Liza, Jack Lynch as John, Elizabeth Rzasa as Peter and Hudson Orfe as Michael. John Blazejewski

It has been said that growing old is mandatory but that growing up is optional.
In “Peter Pan,” in its most popular musical version being presented by Yardley Players at West Windsor’s Kelsey Theater, the leading character steadfastly refuses to do either.

Peter Pan is now 112 years old. He began life in a novel called “The Little White Bird” by Scottish writer J. M. Barrie, which became a stage play called “Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up.” The play premiered in London in 1904 and reached Broadway in 1906.

Barrie expanded the play’s plot into a novel in 1911 called “Peter and Wendy,” and that has become one of the world’s most popular books.

Since then, there have been dozens of stage and screen versions and variations, but the 1954 Broadway musical version, which became an American family institution when it was shown in slightly varying productions on TV in 1955, 1956, 1960 and often afterwards, is the one on view here.

On Broadway, Mary Martin originated the lead and repeated her interpretation for the beloved TV versions, but the show has been back to Broadway several times with Sandy Duncan and Cathy Rigby as Peter.

Elizabeth Rzasa, who plays Peter for Yardley Players, did extensive research to prepare her interpretation of the role, which is a considerable change of pace both physically and dramatically from her usual roles.

“I’m a classically trained lyric soprano, and this role lies in the bottom register of my usual range,” Rzasa says. “I’ve been building up my vocal stamina, because it’s a long part requiring several different vocal styles.

“In “Mysterious Lady,” I can do my coloratura singing, but in other songs, like “I Won’t Grow Up” and “Ugg-a-Wugg,” I’m with a healthy chorus of Lost Boys, and I have to hold my own,” she adds. “The hardest part is that I move around so much while I’m singing, and usually, as the typical ingénue, I just stand and look pretty. There are sword fights and, of course, I sometimes fly while I’m singing, and that harness requires a whole different breathing technique.

“I’ve been in training since last October,” says Rzasa, who will follow up “Pan” by playing Cinderella in Stephen Sondheim’s “Into the Woods.”

Rzasa has known this version of the story, which has a score by Moose Charlap, Jule Styne, Carolyn Leigh, Betty Comden and Adolph Green, her whole life. She finds it different from Disney’s animated version, which is also much shorter.

“Disney’s Peter seems to have more silly fun,” Rzasa says, “but there isn’t that contrast with the more serious moments like when the audience is asked to save Tinker Bell from dying. That has been a magic theatrical moment for over a century!

“From looking at Peter from the inside, I find him more arrogant and selfish than I realized,” she adds. “He’s very much a ‘me first’ person, and if he can’t have Wendy to mother his Lost Boys, he’ll take her daughter. AND he gives her the same old line he gave Wendy.”

Peter’s nemesis is Captain Hook, and just as it is theatrical tradition for Peter to be played by an agile female, James Zimmerman plays not only Hook but also Mr. Darling, father of Wendy, John and Michael, whom Peter lures off to Neverland.

“He’s a very proper Victorian gentleman,” Zimmerman says of Mr. Darling, “but there are hints of Hook when things start to go wrong in the final moments of Mr. Darling’s appearance at the beginning. But Hook not only has that impressive hat and mustache, but he’s more physical, more animated, more flamboyant.”

Zimmerman also believes that Hook’s life had been uneventful until a violent encounter with Peter, when Peter cut off his hand and threw it to a passing crocodile, who found it tasty and now yearns for more bits or all of Hook.

“Hook discovered fear,” Zimmerman says. “He looks back over his shoulder now. Peter taught him how and why to be afraid, and he’s driven by his need to pay Peter back for forcing him to face that dark fact of life.”

Like Rzasa, Zimmerman has been a fan of Barrie’s story his whole life, and he has a theory about the continued popularity of the various and constantly evolving versions of Pan’s saga with people of all ages.

“When you’re a child, you think that Peter Pan is the most important character because he leads all those adventures and has such fun and success doing unique and defiant things. He’s outgoing and in charge,” Zimmerman says.

“But when you grow up, you realize that Wendy is the most important character because she chooses to go back to the real world and her home,” Zimmerman says. “She accepts the challenge of growing up; she faces responsibility and grows up, and she does so proudly.

“However, she also realizes that children need to have their carefree moments, and as an adult, she lets Peter, who has not changed at all, take her daughter for her own adventure,” he says. “That cycle will be endless.”

“Peter Pan”When: 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays, through March 23Where: Kelsey Theatre, Mercer County Community College, 1200 Old Trenton Road, West WindsorAdmission: $20 for adults, $18 for senior citizens, and $16 for students and children; (609) 570-3333 or kelseytheatre.net